Sumanta Banerjee, author of The Simmering Revolution, the most objective and authoritative account till date of the Naxalite Revolt of the late sixties and early seventies, places his collection of Naxalite poems and songs, both urban and rural, in a fairly elaborate theoretical matrix that gives a short account of the Revolt through its various phases, and how it redefined the social function of literature, and goes into an analysis of the changing attitudes of the participants and sympathetic observers. An introductory chapter studies the exploitative system that led to the Revolt, and a concluding chapter records the revaluations that came to be made once the more militant phase of the movement was over. The literary material drawn from the most varied sources, both printed and oral, represents a wide range of authorship including urban, rural and tribal activists, some of the martyrs themselves, traditional folk singers, and established poets.